Troy Wagner's Blog Machine

Saturday, August 16, 2014

As you probably noticed, I haven't updated this blog in quite some time. Sorry about that. Truth be told, I kind of forgot about it. Between finishing Marble Hornets, relaunching the THAC Store, the Kickstarter, the podcast, and soon becoming a dad(!!!), This ole' bloggin' thing slipped away from me.

Now that MH has wrapped up, I won't be posting on here a whole lot about it anymore. We're working on figuring out how we want to do an overall THAC blog, where we can post updates on what all we're doing. The program we use for the store has some pretty alright blogging features built into it, so if we don't find anything better we'll just stick with that.

But until then, and so that this update isn't totally devoid of actual updates, here's some stuff we're currently working on:

Testing out adding a forum onto the THAC website

New THAC Charity items on the store

Assembling the MH Season 3 DVD

Working on a new DOS-O-RAMA, Earth & You, and THAC Short.

More preliminary work on the super secret next series.

Busy as usual, which is great!

Anyway, I'll keep this blog around for more personal stuff now, I guess? I never really have much to say about myself, but I'll try.

In about 4 more months I'll have a daughter flopping around the place, which is totally crazy. I can't imagine I'll have a whole lot of free time once that happens, but I'm pretty okay with that. The only thing I'm worried about is whether or not I'll make enough off of all this to support her properly. It's looking alright for the time being, but this line of work isn't exactly known for its consistency. Getting another job on the side wouldn't be the end of the world, I just love being able to devote all my productivity to what I do now.

Oh well, worrying is dumb. I'll try not to neglect this blog anymore. Thanks to everyone that reminded me I still have it!

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Oh maannn have things been busy. And changing. Things have been busy changing but also busy in general, is what I mean to say.

None of it in a bad way though, which is...y'know, good. We've finally gotten around to doing something we've been talking about for more than a year now, and that's to form a legitimate company that can kind of be a catch all for everything we do. The bureaucratic paperwork was a nightmare and I still don't think I'm fully finished with it yet, but as of late last month THAC LLC is now a thing. We have a P.O. box!

AND TAXES HNNNGGGGGG

What does that mean for all of you? We're a bit more unburdened now by the financially complex way we used to operate, which should translate to more stuff sooner on both the Marble Hornets and THAC fronts. Holy crap that sounded so buzzword-y, ugh I'm sorry. We have official "office hours" now too, instead of "hey come over whenever I don't care who knows I might even be awake" hours. Granted, by "office" I really mean the three of us in my spare bedroom with folding tables for desks, but hey, baby steps.

Along with that, we've begun the process of centralizing everything we do. Before, it was all spread out and disorganized, with the MH and THAC youtube channels, the live streams, this blog, and the DVD store all essentially being separate entities. We're now working on making all of that available in one place with the thac.tv website. It's still being worked on, but once it's finished it should be the place where you can easily get to anything we make. We're also planning on adding some new things along with it as well, like a podcast and Twitch live streams (we're likely to be migrating to there from Ustream soon).

ON TOP OF THAT, we've launched an official store as well. It's bare bones at the moment, only having the leftover stickers that are available from GMX and Austin Comic Con, but there will be some new additions to it very soon. A few of which are probably pretty obvious. Right now I guess we're considering it a soft launch or a beta. It should be noted that we are in complete control of it too, stocking and shipping are all us, so any questions or problems you might have in regards to orders go directly to us (the dedicated support email is store@thac.tv).

We want to remain as transparent as humanly possible when it comes to dealing with all of this new stuff, so if you want to know anything at all, just ask! We're super amped about this new way of doing things, and have been working all week on getting it all set up and organized. We'll be back to shooting the next MH entry early next week, as well. So as always, stay tuned and thanks for being tuned in the first place!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

First of all, big thanks for everyone that came out to see us at Austin Comic Con on such short notice. When we first got there, the three of us mostly just wandered around the show floor because we didn't have a booth. We got stopped a handful of times even then, which was pretty neato.

On Saturday, the panel with us, Doug Jones, and James Moran went really well and had a nice turnout. We were able to open up about the details of the movie a bit more than I was expecting, too. Oh, and speaking of which, I had no idea that James had brought a clip of it with him to show everyone there. That was a pretty cool bonus for all of us, myself included. Unfortunately, we're not able to share the clip publicly and we had to make sure it wasn't being recorded by anyone in the room, so the details of it will have to remain a mystery for now. I'm pretty sure there's video of the rest of the panel around on youtube though, so if you wanna see everything but the movie clip, it's out there.

After the panel we had three hours at a signing booth, where we and Doug Jones gave away stickers and autographs to everyone that stopped by. We were swamped pretty much the whole time, which was also unexpected.

What's not unexpected is how nice Doug always is.

After leaving for the day, we went out to eat with Doug and the Mosaic folks at a pretty nice local place called Red's Porch. It was cool getting to hang out with those guys and get updates on everything else that's been going down with the movie. All positive stuff. That's good. Also Austin's local beer is fantastic.

All in all, it was great! I wish we had gotten more time to prepare stuff and lock in more panels, but I think the folks at Mosaic were just so pumped about getting word out about the movie that they sent us all out to the very first one that gave them a green light for it. I'm cool with that.

Back on the webseries side of things, we got the last two entries shot over the course of two days. Since the location we're using for the school is about a two hour drive away from us, it'd be pretty inefficient to only shoot one entry at a time whenever we're there, not to mention really expensive. That's not to imply we won't be using other, closer, more familiar locations before the ending rolls around though. Who knows. I'm totally NOT going to say that shooting multiple entries while we're at the school should decrease the wait time with them, because every time I do something ridiculous happens that keeps it from being that way. So uh, everything is going to stay the same forever. Yes.

I won't go into too much detail, to avoid the risk of spoilers, but the last two entries were very fun to shoot. Especially for me. Especially for the most recent one. It was one of the few that we had planned out almost entirely since the beginning of season three, so finally getting around to it was great. We'll definitely have plenty to talk about when we record the DVD commentary for this one, that's for sure.

As soon as Tim finishes up with a project he's been working on the past week and a half out in Birmingham, we'll be back to shooting. I guess I can say that we're in the home stretch of MH now because that's really super vague and doesn't imply how many entries are left at all.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Okay so remember how I mentioned that we didn't have any cons after GMX? Turns out we have another one. Pretty soon, actually.

Joseph, Tim, and I will be at Austin Comic Con November 22nd and 23rd with Doug Jones! We'll be doing a panel about the movie that'll be happening from 4:00-4:45 that Saturday (the 23rd) in Ballroom E. I don't think we'll have time to have a DVD/shirt table set up because we'll be having to get on our flight back home either late Saturday night or Sunday morning. Before and after the panel, I'll be sure to let everyone know what general area we'll be at so if you'd like to come say hey you can! Maybe we can weasel our way back behind Doug's signing table to hang out there, but I can't say for sure because I literally just now thought of that.

This is kind of last minute, I know, but come by if you can! At the very least to meet Doug because seriously that guy is just the best.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween everyone! Very timely word just came down that this would be the perfect chance to finally share some more news with you about the movie. At long last. I don't know if I'd be able to keep it to myself much longer. Here we go:

-First, the news that will probably put some of you at ease. The movie will not be a continuation of the storyline on the Marble Hornets Youtube channel. That's still set to finish up at the end of season 3, so no cliffhangers that will require you to go to a movie theater to see resolved. Instead, the story of the movie will take place in the same universe as the webseries, and there's definitely a reason for that, but speaking more on that ventures into spoiler territory.

-The movie itself, believe it or not, has already been shot! Remember our super secret trip to LA this summer? That was to visit the set. It was an awesome experience to see everyone bustling around and getting things done. Got to meet and chat for a bit with pretty much everyone on the team, including all the actors that were there that day. Oh yeah, speaking of which...

We happened upon this guy.

-As some of you have already suspected, it's totally true, the one and only Doug Jones is in the movie as The Operator. Yeah man, THAT Doug Jones. He was the nicest guy to meet and hang around with, yet was able to turn instantly unsettling once the cameras were rolling. I can't think of a better person to play the part and am so pumped that it all worked out. Tim is entirely to thank for getting it all started with a simple tweet almost two years ago (!!!)

So that's the three big bits of news for your Halloween enjoyment. We'll no doubt be blabbing on about it at every opportunity at GMX this weekend too, so feel free to bring it up there if you're coming. Release date, trailers, the title of the movie, and more are still yet to be revealed but we're working on getting some more announcements out there sooner than you might think! Thanks as always for sticking around for all this, everyone. More is on the way!

Sunday, October 27, 2013

It's that time of the year again where we pack up lots of stuff and head off to Nashville for GMX! This is pretty much our "home con" and the one we always really look forward to. This year we have more stuff scheduled for us than we've ever had before. Here's what all is going down:

Friday:
Opening Ceremony
6:00pm-7:00pm in Main Events
-The one where we always forget that we have to get up in front of everyone and say something. I doubt this year will be any different.

YouTube Content Creators Panel
7:00pm-8:00pm in Main Events
-Hang around right after opening ceremonies to hear us and other folks talk about this thing called the internet and putting videos on it.

How to Make a Webseries
9:00pm-10:00pm in Franklin
-Our half serious presentation about how we make MH and what all has worked and failed horribly for us. There will be a powerpoint.

Saturday:
Celebrity D&D: The High Adventure Returneth
11:00am-1:00pm in Palomino

-The continuation of our woefully inept adventures in Dungeons that also have Dragons in them. This time there will be some new, awesome people up there with us. I don't think I'm allowed to say who all they are so stop by to find out. We're honored to be their meat shields.

Exterminate Bullying Charity Auction

1:00pm-3:00pm in Palomino

-We'll be auctioning off another hand painted mask from Marble Hornets here, as well as lunch/dinner with us at any time during the con. Since we're in the final season of MH, all signs point to the mask being the last one that will ever be available for auction at GMX. All proceeds go to The Evolve Project, which is a non-profit focused on anti-bullying with middle school aged kids. It's a subject that I'm personally pretty familiar with, so it'd be really great to see lots of people come out and help support this organization.

Marble Hornets Q&A

5:00pm-6:00pm in Palomino

-Ask us questions about stuff. If no questions are in attendance we will discuss Sonic the Hedgehog lore.

Marble Hornets Season 3 Commentary
8:00pm-9:00pm in Palomino
-We have less time for this one than usual due to scheduling compromises, which is alright because we thought it might be kind of weird to do all of season 3 even though it's not finished yet. Also it's not at 2 in the morning like it was last year. That's a plus.

Sunday:

We'll be at our table all day until...

Closing Ceremonies

5:00pm-6:00pm in Main Events

-Come say bye to us before we haphazardly shove all our con stuff back into our cars and ride off into the sunset.

As usual, anytime we're not at one of these panels or eating, you can find us at our booth selling DVDs, shirts (for real this time), and stickers that I made and had printed especially for GMX that you can slap all over your cars and game boys. Signatures on anything and everything are free.

I'll be keeping my twitter updated during the con, so keep an eye on that if you wanna. I'll tweet out our booth location as soon as we find where it is.

Oh yeah, and our super secret special guest from last year will be returning this year too. Sssshhhhh...

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Whoops forgot to update this for a while there.I was really stoked to get the latest MH entry out. It was a heck of a shoot, all done in one night, but it turned out great and Jessica was easy to work with as usual. I honestly wasn't expecting a non-reluctant yes when I asked if she would be okay with Tim carrying her over his shoulder down some stairs while maintaining a limp, but that's exactly what I got. Everything was smooth sailing from then on, despite being so time consuming but that's unavoidable for really involved shoots like this. I think we started around 10pm and didn't fully finish until about 5:30am. It was tiring to say the least, but we're all pretty proud of the end product!I've been writing the script for Entry #77 all this week and we're aiming to shoot this weekend. Tim is working on his own video project for school that he needs to have done by early next week, so there's a possibility that it'll overlap with MH filming. That's totally fine though, it should take priority for him anyway, and won't really push things back all that majorly. Basically what I'm saying is that the next entry is being worked on and is coming soon.In my free time, I'm also working on an animated short, which I mentioned over on my Tumblr some time ago. Obviously my initial estimation of having it done in "two to three weeks" was way off, but I'm still working on it! Tim is doing all the sound design for it now too, which I'm pretty excited about. It'll be over on the THAC channel....um...whenever it's done. I'm afraid of estimating exact dates now.We're also in the process of getting things ready for GMX, which starts November 1st. We're working on restocking our DVD and tshirt supplies after selling a lot more than expected at Connecticon (which was awesome!). We'll definitely have the shirts this time too, which we didn't have last year for various silly reasons. I'm also kicking around the idea of having a limited run of semi-GMX-exclusive shirts there. They'll only be available at GMX, but we'll try and figure out a way to sell any extras we have online. I'm thinking it'll either be something related to THAC shorts (like this), or something related to ToTheArk. Not sure yet. Any suggestions?And finally, speaking of cons, I've been getting a lot of messages recently about what cons Joseph, Tim, and I will be at after GMX. As of right now, we don't have any others set in stone after that. BUT, if there's a convention near you that you'd like to see us at, by all means email or facebook or tweet or telegraph the folks in charge about it. If they'd like an email address to reach us at, mhtroyw@gmail.com is the one. Hopefully this doesn't sound like I'm asking all of you to do the work for us. It's just really difficult to pinpoint the countless cons out there that might have interest in having us around. Thanks a bundle for getting us to all the places we've been to so far too <3Lots of new stuff coming!